Monday Morning Roundup

Kent, could you expand on Iran? Specifically, why do you believe economic sanctions would be unsuccessful? It seems like Iran has as much to lose as we do from economic sanctions - they're no North Korea.

On another note, this from CNN:

Rep. John Murtha, an outspoken opponent of the war in Iraq, announced Friday that he would run for majority leader if the Democrats take over the House in the fall elections.

"If we prevail as I hope and know we will, and return to the majority this next Congress, I have decided to run for the open seat of the majority leader," Murtha said in a letter to his Democratic colleagues.

And also this from TNR:

As readers will probably know, Murtha is a close ally of Nancy Pelosi who favors a fast withdrawal from Iraq. Hoyer is more inclined to tough it out in Iraq, and has a long history of friction with Pelosi.

One more, this time an interview with Harry Reid, courtesy of Salon:

I think it's allowed me to be myself, to try to take on the giants, you know, because I feel like I have a little bit of help. When I started this thing with the privatization of Social Security, I felt like David going against Goliath. Bush and the media out there, it was a 9-foot giant, and here I was a teenage kid. But after we fired that rock and hit 'em in the middle of the forehead and beat them, they're no longer 9 feet high. They're about my size. We have a better shot at 'em. Still not as good as it would have been had we not had everything consolidated, and the Fairness Doctrine [had not gone] out the window, and all the things that were so "fair." We don't have that, but we've made progress.

For the record, I like Reid a lot, and I think he's one of the better politicians working in Washington.

If I had to root for one house in November, I would hope for the Senate. The idea of Pelosi dragging the party to the left is not very comforting; seems like the Senate would produce a more moderate approach, courtesy of Reid and others.

Thoughts?